...of the tasks of Economic Councils and so forth and so on. The lowest cell must be

In industrial districts and settlements, the lowest organs of the Council of Labor and Defense must be district committees and factory committees or the administrations of factories and plants - depending on whether one has to deal with a single branch of industry or several. In any case, the coordination of work with district executive committees, volost executive committees, village committees for measures guiding all local economic life is necessary, in one form or another, absolutely without question.

Furthermore. The question of proper reporting by local organs to the Council of Labor and Defense acquires exceptional importance, for one of the principal evils from which we suffer consists in the lack of study of practical experience, exchange of experience, mutual control - of central directives by local practice and of local practice by central leadership. One of the most important means of combating bureaucratism and red tape must consist in verifying the implementation of laws and central directives by local authorities; for this, reports are needed, printed for general information with obligatory expansion of participation by non-party and non-departmental people. Such a journal as "Our Economy," "a biweekly organ of the Tver Provincial Economic Council" (No. 1, 15. IV. 1921; No. 2, 30. IV. 1921), demonstrates that in the localities the need for study, illumination, and publication of the results of our economic experience is recognized and finds proper ways of satisfying it. Of course, not in every province will they be able, at least in the coming months, to put out a journal; not everywhere will they be able to print twice a month


three thousand copies, as Tver prints. But not only in each province, but in each district can - and must - compile once every two months (for the start one can permit, as an exception, even longer intervals) a report on local economic work and print it, say, in 100-300 copies. Paper and printing facilities for such modest work will certainly be found everywhere if we understand the importance and urgency of such work, the necessity of taking paper away from many departments that print masses of unnecessary or far from the most urgently needed things. If one sets type in small font; if one prints in 2 columns (as the comrades in Tver do); if one understands that simple truth that even a hundred copies, when delivered, one to each provincial library and one to each major state-wide library, already gives, admittedly a meager, but nonetheless undeniable possibility of all-Russian information and accounting of experience, - then the feasibility and urgency of this will be clear.

Genuine accounting of experience, genuine exchange of experience, the attraction of all outstanding and capable organizers from among the non-party members - all this is impossible without proper printing of reports, even if in a negligible minimum number of copies. This must be and can be achieved immediately.

In compiling reports, it is necessary to combine the greatest possible brevity with accuracy in answering the questions posed. The questions are divided into four groups: the first group of questions is those which are especially placed in the forefront at the present time. An answer to them is obligatory in each report and with the greatest accuracy and detail. This is necessary particularly because this group of questions for the vast majority of districts has an exceptionally vital, pressing significance precisely at this moment. For the minority of districts and regions, namely for purely industrial ones, other questions will move to the forefront. The second group of questions is such that answers to them are also obligatory in each report,

